Vehicle sun visors are typically attached to the roof of the vehicle adjacent the top of the windshield. Each sun visor is normally mounted to pivot about two different axes. The first (horizontal) axis allows rotation of the sun visor between a first position adjacent the roof of the vehicle and a second position extending downward from the vehicle roof to shield the front seat occupant from sun glare. The second (vertical) axis allows rotation of the sun visor between a first position adjacent the vehicle windshield and a second position adjacent a side window of the vehicle.
Most vehicles provide a pair of opposing sun visors for use by front seat occupants of the vehicle. The opposing sun visors are usually separated from one another by a lateral space sufficient to allow insertion of a rear view mirror between the two visors. However, the sun visors in most modern vehicles do not typically extend to the rear view mirror and thus leave a gap that allows light rays to pass unobstructed to the front seat occupant. Additionally, most sun visors are shorter than the width of a side passenger window and therefore leave a gap in the coverage provided when the sun visor is pivoted from the front windshield to the side window.
While numerous attempts have been made to address the shortcomings of conventional vehicle sun visors, these attempted solutions usually fall short of the mark in the areas of cost, complexity or ease of use. For example, high-end automobiles may include sun visors incorporating complex systems for changing the size or shape of the visor to accommodate different users and changing driving conditions. However, such systems are not easily retrofitted to existing sun visors and may be prohibitively expensive for the average user. Other devices designed to be attached to existing sun visors rely on complex mechanisms for both attaching the device to the visor and for extending the coverage provided by the visor. Furthermore, most add on sun visor extensions focus on the limited vertical dimension of the visor once the visor is rotated downward from the roof of the vehicle rather than the lateral size of the visor. Such extension systems thus tend to hang from the sun visor to expand the vertical coverage provided by the visor, and are particularly useful only for shorter front seat occupants.
Thus, a simple and inexpensive lateral extension system is needed to address the shortcomings of traditional sun visors.
It is with respect to these and other background considerations, limitations and problems, that the present invention has evolved.